DRUG-POLICING EFFORTS MAY SUFFER

DEA, Coast Guard Divert Resources To Terrorism Fight

WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. government focuses on terrorism, drug traffickers
in South America are smuggling more narcotics through the Caribbean toward
U.S. borders, experts said Wednesday.

"Trafficking organizations see a window of opportunity to traffic in the
Caribbean," Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson told a
legislative panel.

The DEA and the Coast Guard have removed personnel from counter-narcotics
functions and deployed them to combat terrorism, and the Coast Guard has
pulled eight cutters from the Caribbean, officials told the House
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

Independent experts said counter-narcotics efforts might become a partial
casualty -- despite $1.3 billion in U.S. counter-drug assistance to
Colombia this year -- as the Pentagon engages in military action in
Afghanistan and combats terrorism at home.

Not A Priority

"Colombia is just not an intelligence priority right now. Look at the Gulf
War. We pulled all sorts of resources from South America," said Raphael
Perl, a narcotics and terrorism specialist with the Congressional Research
Service. U.S. forces now deploy fewer of the specialized radar aircraft
known as Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) over the Andes and the
Caribbean to watch for suspicious planes, said Bruce M. Bagley, a
University of Miami expert on the narcotics trade.

"There were about four [AWACS aircraft] we were using on a regular basis
before. And at least two have been withdrawn," Bagley said.

As U.S. radar planes re-deploy to South Asia, drug traffickers may be
testing to see if U.S. counter-narcotics efforts have lessened, said Peter
Probst, a former Pentagon counter-terrorism official. "This, unfortunately,
works to their advantage. They are incredibly opportunistic," he said.

The U.S. military denies that counter-narcotics operations have diminished.

"We can't tell you the number or location of our resources, due to
operational security reasons," said Capt. Trisha Cundiff, a spokeswoman for
U.S. Southern Command air forces. "But the Air Force remains committed to
continuing cooperative efforts . . . in counter-drug operations."

Of the many agencies involved in U.S. counter-narcotics efforts, the Coast
Guard may face the greatest strains as its vessels are diverted to protect
coastal nuclear and power plants and ports with storage facilities for
potentially explosive materials.

The number of vessels and aircraft devoted to counter-narcotics missions
has fallen between 65 and 75 percent since Sept. 11, Coast Guard Rear Adm.
Terry M. Cross told the subcommittee. The shift to homeland security
"challenges our ability to adequately resource other missions, notably drug
interdiction," Cross warned in prepared testimony.

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Coast Guard pulled three cutters
from counter-drug operations in the eastern Pacific, and dropped the number
of cutters in the Caribbean on law enforcement patrols from 11 to three,
Cross said.

The DEA also faces a staffing shortfall as it helps on the
counter-terrorism front.

"A little over 100 agents" are temporarily serving as air marshals,
Hutchinson told The Herald after the hearing. Another 40 DEA intelligence
analysts are on loan to the FBI, he added.

Unintended Benefit

Some experts believe that enhanced vigilance at U.S. borders may
counter-balance reduced surveillance over the Andean region and throughout
the Caribbean.

"It cuts both ways," said Jonathan M. Winer, a former deputy assistant
secretary of state for international law enforcement. As border agents
heighten their alert, "it has the potential to create a crackdown on crime
across the board."

Advocates of aggressive U.S. counter-narcotics tactics voice annoyance that
the State Department has not established the safety mechanisms that would
allow the renewal of a policy to target any suspicious aircraft in the
Andean region and shoot them out of the sky.

Washington stopped sharing radar signals with Andean countries in late
April after a CIA radar plane helped a Peruvian jet fighter shoot down a
civilian aircraft, killing a U.S. missionary and her daughter.

A still-secret report discussing the conditions for restarting the program
remains under discussion at the State Department two months after its
completion. "The [department] is still paralyzed. It's mind-boggling," said
a senior congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.